Monday, April 30, 2012

Brainwashed Reviews Ithi Tape

Link here.
Following up their acclaimed debut LP The Persistence of Meaning, this Brooklyn duo of Joshua Convey and Luke Krnkr serve up another release of dark, mysterious murk that channels krautrock as much as harsh noise. With an A side that goes for more musical elements, and a harsher, disjointed B side, the combination works wonderfully.
Land of Decay
The A side begins with "Go Forth and Die," initially a slow, brittle drum machine pulse and barely controlled sharp, high end feedback that may or may not be a heavily treated guitar. Buried, almost hidden vocals eventually arise, reshaping the piece with subtle, but noticeable changes. The track perfectly segues into "Roses in the Snow", which is a more ambient piece collected from the disintegrated fragments of the previous one. With its looped, mantra-like structure and continued oddly treated guitar, there's definitely more than a passing resemblance to mid-period Main, with a few extra layers of grime added.
On the flip side, the long "NoWhere" shows its dissonant character immediately, with what sounds like a looped computer data tape run through distortion. Slowly, the rhythmic loop becomes more and more complex, with a buzzsaw guitar line and harsher, abstract noise piled atop. It’s a wall of chaotic, glorious noise that stretches out for nearly 15 minutes, while never losing that pulsing lurch below it.
With the first half of this tape demonstrating the duo's more musical exploits, and the other letting the feedback and noise fly, the balance between the two is perfectly struck. The first two tracks especially come across brilliantly with its obscured vocals and melodic throb, but the noisier piece is no slouch either. For a project that's still relatively young, Ithi has already proven themselves quite ably.